Johnny Football suffers his first CFL (ratings) defeat

Johnny Manziel has suffered his first loss in the CFL… to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the B.C. Lions.

The game last Friday between to the two West Division teams drew an English-language television audience of 291,500 – despite a 10 p.m. EST start. That far outpaced the 163,500 the Ticats and Alouettes drew for Saturday’s 1 p.m. game in Montreal, a contest that was added to TSN’s meagre roster of pre-season games because of the presence of Johnny Football.

Now, some qualifiers. These numbers don’t include French-language RDS, which likely changes the equation somewhat, given that the game featured the Alouettes (though unlikely enough to close the gap.) It was a lovely summer day in Southern Ontario (and Montreal) last Saturday, meaning watching pre-season football may have taken a back seat to golf, patio beers or the list of honey-do chores for many.

And Bomber fans likely tuned in to see what their life looks like in the interminable period without Matt Nichols. (The answer: not particularly promising. But hope, as we know, springs internal in Bomberland. )

Anyway, things get going for real this week with Johnny on the bench and the eyes of most of America turned elsewhere. For now, anyway.

But why did only 25k for the home opener?
Fair weather fans? why didn’t they sell out a couple of weeks ago and then they won’t have to worry about people not showing up when the weather is bad.
25k tickets sold

And yet TSN and ESPN+ changed their programming at the last minute to show the game….. You call that a defeat for JFF? The fact that the game was televised at all shows the drawing power of JF. Tell me another player in the CFL who could make that happen? If the Ticats get beat up in the first few games I’m sure you will be echoing the call to see Johnny….. Where JFF goes…. Money follows!

It was an exhibition game. WHO CARES!!! Any team playing Montreal will see poor TV ratings. Als will be lucky to win 2 or 3 games this year. I guess you had to fill some space on your web page so you picked this useless bit of info.

TV ratings are less important every year, declining numbers are expected with more people cutting the cord and watching on tablets/Iphones.
NUMERIS only measures TELEVISION ratings, the number of people watching games on other devices is not measured.
Sports like the MLS is mainly watched by young millenials and very few watch TV they are streaming.

Manziel, besides mobility, is extremely accurate; Masoli is NOT accurate. Its not too hard to tell what June Jones is doing; he’s grooming Manziel, because he knows he’s like a fine thoroughbred. Its true that his instincts are lightening quick and that means, along with toughness, that Flutie comparisons are NOT off the mark. But it took Flutie two seasons to really get rolling. Manziel has the skill set of a Flutie, but he’s taller & innately tougher, more like Theismann in toughness. Flutie was more delicate (could hardly stand the cold, which he complained of every year) but he made up for it in competitiveness. Flutie was the most competitive QB the CFL ever had – he had to win at all card games, Risk, & miniature golf! Manziel needs a June Jones to stoke his competitiveness and KEEP IT at a high level, life long; I think they will succeed together. In the meantime, during this “grooming” phase, Manziel will learn a few tricks of the CFL trade from Masoli. But if Masoli keeps showing inaccurate throws, expect to see more and more of Manziel, ’til he becomes the starter. At least that’s what I think (an old guy, class-mate of John Elway at Stanford)